Difference between revisions of "Fiona Fox"

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'''Fiona Fox''' is the director of the [[Science Media Centre]] (SMC).  
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{{Powerbase:LM network: Resources}}
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[[Image:Fiona Foster 1992.jpg|left|thumb|250|[[Fiona Fox]] listed as '[[Fiona Foster]]' in a picture from the journal she edited at the time: ''[[Irish Freedom]]'' the bulletin of the [[Irish Freedom Movement]], Issue 18 Summer 1992.]]
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''Some sections of this page have been suspended pending further research.''
  
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Despite having no previous background in science or science communication, Fox has been afforded, since her appointment in December 2001, the status of expert. She has, for example, been included in a working party on peer review set up by [[Sense About Science]], and in a steering group on improving communication over science policy and risk set up by the [[Office of Science and Technology]]. In 2003 Fox delivered a lecture at [http://www.ox.ac.uk/gazette/2002-3/weekly/060203/diry.htm Green College], Oxford, on the challenge of adapting science to the mass media.  
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'''Fiona Fox''' is the director of the [[Science Media Centre]] (SMC) and is associated with the libertarian anti-environmental [[LM network]] and its precursor, the [[Revolutionary Communist Party]].  
  
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Within a matter of months of Fox becoming director, the SMC was embroiled in controversy over its activities. It was accused of operating as [http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/biologicalscience/story/0,9834,726989,00.html 'a sort of Mandelsonian rapid rebuttal unit'] and of employing [http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,4428627-103680,00.html 'some of the clumsiest spin techniques of New Labour']. There have also been controversies about both the SMC's funding and Fox's background.
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As a student, she joined and was subsequently a leading member of the Revolutionary Communist Party and of its front group the [[Irish Freedom Movement]].  She was for a period (circa 1992) the editor of its bulletin titled ''[[Irish Freedom]]''. [[Fiona Fox]] wrote, using her party name, Fiona Foster, for [[Living Marxism]], appeared in [[Spiked]],<ref>[http://www.spiked-online.com/articles/0000000CAA22.htm E=mc2] Spiked website, acc 13 Mar 2011</ref> chaired sessions at the [[Battle of Ideas]], <ref>[http://www.battleofideas.org.uk/index.php/2009/speaker_detail/1651/] Battle of Ideas website, acc 13 Mar 2011</ref> has adjudicated for [[Debating Matters]], <ref>{http://www.debatingmatters.com/people/fiona_fox/ People] Debating Matters website, acc 13 Mar 2011</ref> is an adviser to the [[Progress Educational Trust]]<ref>[http://www.progress.org.uk/fionafox Fiona Fox]] Progress Educational Trust website </ref> and wrote, again as Fiona Foster, for [[Novo Argumente]]. Fiona is a younger sister of leading LM associate [[Claire Fox]] and is married to LM associate [[Kevin Rooney]], with whom she has had a son, Declan. <ref> "[http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/article722094.ece Claire and Fiona Fox, sisters]", The Sunday Times, May 28 2006, accessed July 4 2010</ref> 
  
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According [http://www.sciencemediacentre.org/staff.htm to the profile provided] by the SMC, Fox previously ran 'the media operation at the National Council for One Parent Families' and was 'Head of Media at CAFOD, the Catholic aid agency'. In addition, the SMC says, Fox 'has written extensively for newspapers and publications, authored several policy papers and contributed to books on humanitarian aid.'
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Despite having no previous background in science or science communication, Fox has been afforded, since her appointment to the Science Media Centre in December 2001, the status of expert. She has, for example, been included in a working party on peer review set up by [[Sense About Science]], and in a steering group on improving communication over science policy and risk set up by the [[Office of Science and Technology]]. In 2003 Fox delivered a lecture at [http://www.ox.ac.uk/gazette/2002-3/weekly/060203/diry.htm Green College], Oxford, on the challenge of adapting science to the mass media.  
  
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What they do not say is that throughout much of that time Fox led a double life. It's one which seriously undermines the SMC's claims to be open, rational, balanced and independent, not to mention its being in the business of ensuring the 'that the public gets access to all sides of the debate about controversial issues.'   
 
  
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It's a double life that connects the SMC's director to the inner circles of a political network that compares environmentalists to Nazis and eulogises GM crops and cloning. More disturbingingly it is a network whose members have a long history of infiltrating media organisations and science-related lobby groups in order to promote their own agenda. It is also a network that has targeted certain media organisations and sought to discredit them or their journalists.
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==Early career==
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Fox was born in 1964, attended St. Richard Gwyn Catholic High School, Flint in North Wales and studied journalism at the Polytechnic of Central London. She started her career as an Assistant PR officer for Thames Polytechnic, followed by six years at the Equal Opportunities Commission, reaching the position of senior press officer. She then spent two years running the media operation at the National Council for One Parent Families, followed by Head of Media at CAFOD, the Catholic aid agency.
  
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Fox's double life was first exposed after an article entitled [http://web.archive.org/web/20010306140708/www.informinc.co.uk/LM/LM85/LM85_Rwanda.html Massacring the truth in Rwanda] appeared in the December 1995 issue of [[Living Marxism]]. The magazine subsequently reported receiving 'a stream of outraged letters from the Nazi-hunters of the prestigious Simon Wiesenthal Center in Jerusalem, the Rwandan embassy, the London-based African Rights group and others.'   
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==Science Media Centre==
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Within months of Fox becoming its founding director in 2001, the SMC was embroiled in controversy over its activities. It was accused of operating as "a sort of Mandelsonian rapid rebuttal unit" <ref>Ronan Bennett, "[http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2002/jun/02/gm.comment The conspiracy to undermine the truth about our GM drama]", The Guardian, 2 June 2002, accessed March 22 2009</ref> and of employing "some of the clumsiest spin techniques of New Labour"<ref>Alan Rusbridger, "[http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,4428627-103680,00.html Fields of ire]", The Guardian, 7 June 2002 accessed March 22 2009</ref>. There have also been controversies about both the SMC's funding and Fox's background.
  
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Rakiya Omaar and Alex de Waal of African Rights wrote to the magazine to express their outrage at the article: 'Investigating crimes against humanity gives one a high threshold of shock. But the article by Fiona Foster on Rwanda (Massacring the truth in Rwanda, December 1995) was the sort of writing that we never expected to appear in print. We each read it with a growing sense of outrage, leaving us at the end simply numb. Had your paper been entitled Living Fascism we might have been less surprised, but even then we would have expected something a little more circumspect. Not only do you make an apologia for the genocide - the first to appear in print in a widely sold English language publication - but go so far as to question its very reality. This is not only an affront to the truth, in defiance of the fundamentals of humanity, but deeply offensive to the survivors of the third indisputable genocide of this century'.  
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According to the Science Media Centre, Fox previously ran "the media operation at the National Council for One Parent Families" and was "Head of Media at CAFOD, the Catholic aid agency". In addition, the SMC profile says, Fox "has written extensively for newspapers and publications, authored several policy papers and contributed to books on humanitarian aid".<ref>"[http://web.archive.org/web/20040117031234/http://www.sciencemediacentre.org/staff.htm Staff]", Science Media Centre website, version placed in web archive 17 January 2004, accessed March 2009</ref>  What they do not say is that throughout much of that time Fox led a double life. It's one which seriously undermines the SMC's claims to be open, rational, balanced and independent, not to mention its being in the business of ensuring the 'that the public gets access to all sides of the debate about controversial issues.' It's a double life that connects the SMC's director to the inner circles of a political network that compares environmentalists to Nazis and eulogises GM crops and cloning. More disturbingly, it is a network whose members have a long history of infiltrating media organisations and science-related lobby groups in order to promote their own agenda. It is also a network that has targeted certain media organisations and sought to discredit them or their journalists.
  
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Omaar and de Waal, who now works for the U.N., describe the article as 'shoddy journalism' and the ideas advanced in it as 'absurd'. All of which 'would matter less if you were not dealing with one of the greatest crimes of the century, and playing into the hands of genocidal killers'. Omaar and de Waal subsequently established that 'Fiona Foster', the author of the article, was Fiona Fox, then a press officer for CAFOD.   
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Fiona Fox's presence in the SMC needs to be seen in the context of other LM contributors holding senior positions, in a series of organisations which lobby on issues related to biotechnology, eg [[Sense About Science]] (managing director: [[Tracey Brown]]; director: [[Ellen Raphael]]), [[Genetic Interest Group]] (former policy director: [[John Gillott]]), Progress Educational Trust (former director: [[Juliet Tizzard]], Communications Officer [[Sandy Starr]]), and the [[Scientific Alliance]] (advisor: [[Bill Durodie]]). The network's own entities, particularly the [[Institute of Ideas]], relies heavily on funding from [[Pfizer]], the [[Wellcome Trust]] and the [[Research Councils]], funding provided on the basis that these entities will promote discussion of controversial emerging technologies.   
  
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Those trying to understand Fox's bid, in the words of a [http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,181819,00.html Guardian] article, 'to rewrite history in favour of the murderers',  have focussed on her media role at a Catholic aid agency, linking this to the embarrassment of the Church over the role of some priests and bishops in the mass murder. What has received less attention is the nature of Fox's relationship with [[Living Marxism]].  
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This background is a cause for concern in relation to Fox's role as director of the SMC. Fox's Green College Lecture was titled, 'The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth: so where does that leave journalism?' But neither Fox nor the [[Science Media Centre]] have been willing to disclose any of the truth about her long years of involvement with a network of extremists who engage in infiltration of media organisations and science-related lobby groups in order to promote their own agenda. It is also a network which eulogises GM crops and cloning and is extremely hostile towards their critics.
  
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By the time of the Rwandan article Fox had, in fact, been regularly writing for the monthly review of the [[Revolutionary Communist Party]] (RCP) for at least two and a half years. [[Living Marxism]] was first published in 1987 and although the [http://web.archive.org/web/20010607070415/www.informinc.co.uk/LM/research/index.html LM archive] only goes back to 1992 and not all issues are accessible, it is clear that Fox's articles in [[Living Marxism]]  stretch from at least 1992 to 1999, ie to not long before it was forced into closure. Indeed, prior to her Rwanda article, Fox was one of Living Marxism's most prolific contributors, on one occasion even contributing two articles to a single issue (LM 75).  
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Fox's own journalism might also suggest that she is none too fussy about either truth or openness when it comes to pushing her agenda.  It is perhaps revealing that someone whose own journalism has been called 'shoddy' and 'an affront to the truth', and has proved enormously controversial, has been selected as the director of an organisation which claims the role of making sure that controversial scientific issues like GM crops are reported accurately in the media.
  
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Her use of the Fiona Foster alias may have reflected a need to keep her [[Living Marxism]] connections hidden, although the use of aliases was also a standard practice among leading RCP supporters. These aliases typically involved retaining first names and altering surnames. For instance, Frank Furedi was Frank Richards, [[James Hughes]] was [[James Heartfield]], [[Joan Hoey]] was [[Joan Phillips]], [[Keith Teare]] was [[Keith Tompson]] and [[Claire Fox]], Fiona's sister, was [[Claire Foster]]. 
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==Hoax call==
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In October 2010 Fiona Fox was in the news as a result of the disgraced former Labour politician [[Jim Devine]] being ordered to pay his former office manager 35,000 pounds in damages after she won an employment tribunal claim against him. Devine was already facing a criminal trial over allegations he fiddled his expenses as an MP.<ref>Cara Sulieman, [http://news.scotsman.com/topstories/Expensesscandal-MP-told-to-pay.6582375.jp?articlepage=2 Expenses-scandal MP told to pay aide £35,000 over sex slur and bullying], The Scotsman, 15 Oct 2010, acc 18 Oct 2010</ref>
  
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The main focus of most of Fiona Fox's articles was the troubles in Northern Ireland.  In her pieces Fox makes reference to both the Irish Freedom Movement and the Campaign Against Militarism, both of which were front groups for the RCP. The line Fox advances in the articles is precisely that of the RCP which unequiviocally supported the IRA in its armed struggle against 'British imperialism'.  
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A key part of Devine's former office manager's case centered around a hoax call. The telephone call was made to the office manager by a friend of Devine posing as a journalist looking into MPs' expenses. This friend, in reality, was Fiona Fox.
  
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According to a former RCP supporter, Fiona Fox became the head of the Irish Freedom Movement which had a position of never condemning the IRA even when its terrorist atrocities were aimed at civilian targets. In the end, her support for the 'armed struggle' was to outflank even that of the IRA.
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Eventually the office manager realised the call had been a hoax. But this was only after she came across an e-mail to Devine marked urgent from Fiona Fox, Director of the [[Science Media Centre]]. The e-mail was mostly about the Human Fertility and Embryology Bill but at the end was a PS referring to the hoax call Fox had made to Devine's office manager.<ref>Cara Sulieman, [http://deadlinescotland.wordpress.com/2010/10/14/ex-labour-mps-sick-joke-left-office-manager-sick-with-stress/ Ex Labour MP Jim Devine’s ‘hoax’ call left office manager sick with stress – tribunal to rule over dismissal claim], Deadline Press Agency, 14 Oct 2010, acc 18 Oct 2010</ref>
  
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After the start of the peace process, Fox's articles provided a platform for the dissident republican Tommy McKearney (See: [http://web.archive.org/web/20010529171747/www.informinc.co.uk/LM/LM66/LM66_Irish.html Irish republican speaks out] - LM 66, April 94  [http://web.archive.org/web/20010520134057/www.informinc.co.uk/LM/LM75/LM75_Tommy.html Opposing the 'peace process'] - LM 75, January 95). Like the RCP McKearney saw the peace process as 'a historic defeat for the liberation movement', or as he puts it in one of Fox's pieces, 'a cynical ploy to dupe the republican movement' into surrendering unconditionally to the British.
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Fox and Devine seem to have struck up their close friendship while working together to win public support for animal-human hybrid embryos during the passage of the Embryology Bill. The fact that Devine was a Catholic was particularly useful, and he even brokered a special meeting  between the head of the Catholic Church in Scotland and scientific supporters of hybrid embryos.<ref>BRIAN DONNELLY, [http://www.heraldscotland.com/cardinal-agrees-to-meet-embryo-scientists-1.877540 Cardinal agrees to meet embryo scientists], The Herald Scotland, 29 Mar 2008, acc 18 Oct 2010</ref>
  
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Fox writes:  
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The Science Media Centre was involved in co-ordinating the media work in  support of the Embryology Bill, and Fox and her collaborators were particularly anxious not to see the Bill bogged down by public opposition, as happened with GM.<ref>Fiona Fox, [http://www.bionews.org.uk/page_37989.asp Scientists, hybrid embryos and the media], BioNews, 28 Apr 2008, acc 18 Octo 2010</ref>
  
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:' "First and foremost I don't believe that it is a peace process at all." That was how Tommy McKearney, a former IRA prisoner of war, began his speech to the Campaign Against Militarism conference at Wembley in March 1994. He concluded by calling on his audience to expose Britain as a warmonger not a peacemaker in Ireland.'
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Fox's involvement in the Devine hoax has not gone unnoticed in science communication circles. Ian Sample, the science correspondent of The Guardian, has written:
  
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According to a former RCP supporter, '...there were some links with the IRA Continuity Council people/Real IRA etc, through Fiona Fox, but these links were being undermined by the RCP�s growing dismissal of all opposition politics as being old fashioned and &#39;meanlingless.&#39; ' It has obviously been impossible to confirm these links but they would not seem inconsistant with Fox's willingness to provide a platform for those opposed to the peace process and in favour of continuing the campaign of violence. 
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:Though appalling from the off, it was not the top line [of the employment tribunal story] that shocked many of my colleagues most. What  came as a surprise was the revelation far down the story that the fake call in question was made by Fiona Fox, head of the Science Media Centre in London, a prominent venue for press conferences on all matters scientific and medical. Otherwise articulate people who read the story struggled to say more than three letters: WTF?<ref>Ian Sample, [http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/blog/2010/oct/15/science-media-centre-hoax-call Employment tribunal hears of bizarre hoax phone call], Guardian, 15 Oct 2010, acc 18 Oct 2010</ref>
  
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Ironically, in June 2003 Fiona Fox [http://www.terrorismresearch.net/chairbiographies.htm chaired] a session at the two day conference [http://www.terrorismresearch.net/ Communicating the War on Terror] which took place at the [[Royal Institution]], as did [[Bruno Waterfield]] and [[Bill Durodie]] who organised the conference for the Centre for Defence Studies at Kings College London. All have had connections to RCP/LM as had conference speakers like [[Frank Furedi]], [[Phil Hammond]], [[Michael Fitzpatrick]] and [[Mick Hume]], LM's former editor. LM contributor and Assistant Director of [[Sense About Science]], [[Ellen Raphael]] helped Durodie organise the event. Their LM connections do not appear to have been disclosed to conference participants or fellow contributors.
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==Publications, Resources, contact, Notes==
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===Publications===
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====2010-2011====
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*[[Fiona Fox]], [http://fionafox.blogspot.com/2010/01/new-year-round-up-me-susan-greenfield.html 'New Year Round-Up: ME, Susan Greenfield, and the Future of Science Journalism'], ''On Science and the Media'', 21 January 2010.
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*[[Fiona Fox]], [http://fionafox.blogspot.com/2010/01/launch-of-new-scientific-committee-on.html 'Launch of New Scientific Committee on Drugs, Media Show, the Met Office and Simon Jenkins'], ''On Science and the Media'', 29 January 2010.
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*[[Fiona Fox]], [http://fionafox.blogspot.com/2010/02/thoughts-on-climategate.html 'Thoughts on 'Climategate''], ''On Science and the Media'', 9 February 2010.
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*[[Fiona Fox]], [http://fionafox.blogspot.com/2010/03/my-life-in-parallel-universe.html 'My Life in a Parallel Universe'], ''On Science and the Media'', 2 March 2010.
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*[[Fiona Fox]], [http://fionafox.blogspot.com/2010/04/drama-at-royal-insitution-simon-singhs.html 'Drama at the Royal Institution, Simon Singh's Libel Case Dropped, and the Principles of Scientific Advice'], ''On Science and the Media'', 26 April 2010.
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*[[Fiona Fox]], [http://fionafox.blogspot.com/2010/05/evan-harris-parliament-loses-champion.html 'Evan Harris: Parliament Loses a Champion for Science'], ''On Science and the Media'', 11 May 2010.
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*[[Fiona Fox]], [http://fionafox.blogspot.com/2010/06/on-ben-v-jeremy.html 'On Ben v Jeremy], ''On Science and the Media'', 11 June 2010.
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*[[Fiona Fox]], [http://fionafox.blogspot.com/2010/06/are-embargo-breaks-bad-for-science.html 'Are Embargo Breaks Bad for Science?'], ''On Science and the Media'', 30 June 2010.
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*[[Fiona Fox]], [http://fionafox.blogspot.com/2010/07/media-on-uea-guilty-as-charged.html 'The Media on UEA: Guilty as Charged?'], ''On Science and the Media'', 22 July 2010.
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*[[Fiona Fox]], [http://fionafox.blogspot.com/2010/11/science-funding-and-channel-4-film-on.html 'Science Funding and Channel 4 Film on the Green Movement'], ''On Science and the Media'', 10 November 2010.
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*[[Fiona Fox]], [http://fionafox.blogspot.com/2011/02/sharing-love-of-science-thoughts-on.html 'Sharing the Love of Science: thoughts on Beddington'], ''On Science and the Media'', 28 February 2011.
  
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Fox's last article for [[LM]], which was on Africa, was in 1999 but she appears to have continued her conection with the group, chairing a meeting for the [[Institute of Ideas]] (IoI), the organisation formed by her sister Claire when LM was sued out of existence, as recently as [http://www.instituteofideas.com/Events/past/docs/devils_adv.html February 2002].  
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====2005-2009====
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*[[Fiona Fox]], [http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/Issues/2006/November/Comment.asp 'Playing Fast and Loose with Science'], ''Chemistry World: Comment'', November 2006.
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*[[Fiona Fox]], [http://fionafox.blogspot.com/2006/11/just-good-journalism.html 'Just Good Journalism?'],  ''On Science and the Media'', 22 November 2006.
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*[[Fiona Fox]], [http://fionafox.blogspot.com/2006/12/richard-doll-supping-with-devil.html 'Richard Doll: Supping with the Devil?'],  ''On Science and the Media'', 11 December 2006.
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*[[Fiona Fox]], [http://fionafox.blogspot.com/2007/01/stem-cell-scientists-seize-media-agenda.html 'Stem Cell Scientists Seize the Media Agenda on Human-Animal Embryos'],  ''On Science and the Media'', 22 January 2007.
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*[[Fiona Fox]], [http://fionafox.blogspot.com/2007/03/why-experts-need-to-speculate-without.html 'Why Experts Need to Speculate, Without Speculating], ''On Science and the Media'', 9 March 2007.
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*[[Fiona Fox]], [http://fionafox.blogspot.com/2007/05/professor-john-henry-1939-2007-tribute.html 'Professor John Henry )1939-2007): Tribute to a Media Friendly Scientist'],  ''On Science and the Media'', 21 May 2007.
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*[[Fiona Fox]], [http://fionafox.blogspot.com/2007/07/why-we-need-best-journalism-on-public.html 'Why We Need the Best Journalism on Public Health Stories'], ''On Science and the Media'', 18 July 2007.
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*[[Fiona Fox]], [http://fionafox.blogspot.com/2008/05/where-should-politicians-get-their.html 'Where Should Politicians Get Their Scientific Advice?'], ''On Science and the Media'', 9 May 2008.
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*[[Fiona Fox]], [http://fionafox.blogspot.com/2008/05/nick-davies-flat-earth-news-and.html 'Nick Davies' Flat Earth News and 'churnalism - Myth or reality?'], ''On Science and the Media'', 16 May 2008.
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*[[Fiona Fox]], [http://fionafox.blogspot.com/2008/09/how-i-became-physics-groupie.html 'How I Became a Physics Groupie'], ''On Science and the Media'', 19 September 2008.
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*[[Fiona Fox]], [http://fionafox.blogspot.com/2009/02/fiona-creates-buzz-at-world-conference.html 'Fiona Creates a Buzz at the World Conference of Science Journalists 2009 Programme Launch Party, London'], ''On Science and the Media'', 4 February 2009.
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*[[Fiona Fox]], [http://fionafox.blogspot.com/2009/02/using-sledgehammer-to-crack-nutt-media.html 'Using a Sledgehammer to Crack a Nutt - the Media Furore Over Ecstasy'], ''On Science and the Media'', 13 February 2009.
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*[[Fiona Fox]], [http://fionafox.blogspot.com/2009/03/fiona-discusses-science-and-politics-on.html 'Fiona Discusses Science and Politics on Radio 4's Leading Edge'], ''On Science and the Media'', 17 March 2009.
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*[[Fiona Fox]], [http://fionafox.blogspot.com/2009/07/theres-life-in-old-dog-yet-in-defence.html 'There's Life in the Old Dog Yet: In Defence of Journalism'], ''On Science and the Media'', 13 July 2009.
  
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Claire Fox's [[LM]] connections and role within the RCP have been much more public than her sister's, but to judge from [[Living Marxism]], Claire may well have been drawn into the RCP in Fiona's wake. Claire Fox's contributions to Living Marxism do not begin until December 1993 - eighteen months after her  sister's - and they are at first only very intermittent. 
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====2000-2004====
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*[[Fiona Fox]], [http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/Issues/2004/February/comment.asp 'Is 'Nano' the Next GM?'], ''Chemistry World: Comment'', February 2002.
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*[[Fiona Fox]] 'Human Rights and the Rule of Law: Achieving Universal Justice?', in [[David Chandler]] (Ed.) ''Rethinking Human Rights: Critical Approaches to International Politics'' Houndmills: Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan (26 Nov 2002) ISBN-10: 0333977165 ISBN-13: 978-0333977163
  
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Fiona Fox's presence in the SMC also needs to be seen in the context of LM contributors holding senior positions, in a series of organisations which lobby on issues related to biotechnology, eg [[Sense About Science]] (director: [[Tracey Brown]]; assistant director: [[Ellen Raphael]]), [[Genetic Interest Group]] (policy director: [[John Gillott]]), [[Progress Educational Trust]] (director: [[Juliet Tizzard]]), and the [[Scientific Alliance]] (advisor: [[Bill Durodie]]).
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====1995-1999====
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*[[Fiona Foster]], [http://web.archive.org/web/20000615202309/www.informinc.co.uk/LM/LM75/LM75_Tommy.html 'Opposing the 'peace process'], ''Living Marxism'', No. 75 - January 1995, p. 17.
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*[[Fiona Foster]], [http://web.archive.org/web/20000608201728/www.informinc.co.uk/LM/LM75/LM75_CSA.html 'The CSA's hidden success'], ''Living Marxism'', No. 75 - January 1995, p. 34.
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*[[Fiona Foster]], [http://web.archive.org/web/20000308064904/www.informinc.co.uk/LM/LM85/LM85_Rwanda.html 'Massacring the truth in Rwanda'], ''Living Marxism'', No. 85 - December 1995, p. 24.
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*[[Fiona Foster]], [http://web.archive.org/web/20000611112740/www.informinc.co.uk/LM/LM89/LM89_Prisons.html 'Irish republican prisoners'], ''Living Marxism'', No. 89 - April 1996, p. 31.
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*[[Fiona Fox]], [http://web.archive.org/web/20010628031415/http://web.archive.org/web/20010628031415/www.informinc.co.uk/LM/LM116/LM116_Cafod.html 'Who says there are too many Africans?'], ''LM 116'', p. 21, December/January 1998/1999.
  
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This background has to be an immense cause for concern in relation to Fox's role as director of the SMC . Fox's Green College Lecture was titled, 'The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth: so where does that leave journalism?' But neither Fox nor the [[Science Media Centre]] have been willing to disclose any of the truth about her long years of involvement with a network of extremists who engage in infiltration of media organisations and science-related lobby groups in order to promote their own agenda. It is also a network which eulogises GM crops and cloning and is extremely hostile towards their critics.
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====1990-1994====
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*[[Fiona Foster]] and [[Joe Watson]], 'Who says South Armagh is British?', ''Living Marxism'', No. 19 - May 1990, p. 8.
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*[[Fiona Foster]], 'A murder is not announced', ''Living Marxism'', No. 28 - February 1991, p. 32-34.
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*[[Fiona Foster]], 'Hunger Strikers', ''Living Marxism'', No. 31 - May 1991, p. 36-38.
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*[[Fiona Foster]], 'Ireland: The peaces of the grave', ''Living Marxism'', No. 34 - August 1991, p. 26-29.
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*[[Fiona Foster]] [http://web.archive.org/web/20000311162007/www.informinc.co.uk/LM/LM45/LM45_Paras.html 'Behind the Paras' riot'], ''Living Marxism'', No. 45 - July 1992, p. 14.
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*[[Fiona Foster]], [http://web.archive.org/web/20000516171512/www.informinc.co.uk/LM/LM48/LM48_3000.html 'Ireland: 3000 dead'], ''Living Marxism'', No. 48 - October 1992, p. 8.
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*[[Fiona Foster]], [http://web.archive.org/web/20000304025250/www.informinc.co.uk/LM/LM51/LM51_Ireland.html 'The old order crumbles in Ireland'], ''Living Marxism'', No. 51 - January 1993, p. 32.
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*[[Fiona Foster]], [http://web.archive.org/web/19991006003815/www.informinc.co.uk/LM/LM54/LM54_Care.html 'Who cares in the community?'], ''Living Marxism'', No. 54 - April 1993, p. 20.
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*[[Fiona Foster]], [http://web.archive.org/web/19991007011347/www.informinc.co.uk/LM/LM55/LM55_Irish.html#business 'Loyalist murders'], ''Living Marxism'', No. 55 - May 1993, p. 19.
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*[[Fiona Foster]], [http://web.archive.org/web/20000308133243/www.informinc.co.uk/LM/LM58/LM58_Irish.html 'Another Irish fit-up'], ''Living Marxism'', No. 58 - August 1993, p. 23.
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*[[Fiona Foster]] '[http://web.archive.org/web/20000615010457/www.informinc.co.uk/LM/LM66/LM66_Irish.html One of "the unmanageables"]' Tommy McKearney, a former Irish republican prisoner and hunger-striker, told Fiona Foster why he doesn't support the current 'peace process' ''[[Living Marxism]]'' issue 66, April 1994.
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*[[Fiona Foster]],  [http://web.archive.org/web/20000601162330/www.informinc.co.uk/LM/LM71/LM71_Safety.html 'Dying for a job'], ''Living Marxism'', No. 71 - September 1994, p. 22.
  
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Fox's own journalism might also suggest that she is none too fussy about either truth or openness when it comes to pushing her agenda  It is perhaps revealing that someone whose journalism has been called 'shoddy' and 'an affront to the truth', and which has proved enormously controversial, has been selected as the director of an organisation which claims the role of making sure that controversial scientific issues like GM crops are reported accurately in the media.
+
====1985-1989====
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*[[Fiona Foster]], 'Guess who's left holding baby?', ''Living Marxism'', No. 9 - July 1989, p. 28.
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*[[Fiona Foster]], 'Out of the frying pan', ''Living Marxism'', No. 10 - August 1989, p. 32.
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==Affiliations==
 +
*Chair of the [[Science and the Media Expert Group]] appointed by [[DIUS]]/[[BIS]], 2009-2010<ref name="DIUS">DIUS [http://web.archive.org/web/20100121082642/http://interactive.dius.gov.uk/scienceandsociety/site/science-and-the-media/ Science and the Media Expert Group], 2010, retrieved from the Internet Archive of 21 January 2010 on 17 August 2013</ref>
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===Resources===
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*[[Fiona Foster]] [http://www.scribd.com/doc/72180002/Our-Tasks-and-Methods-Circa-1996-Fiona-Foster Contribution to OTAM], in ''Our tasks and methods discussion'', RCP internal document, circa 1996, p. 4-5.
  
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==Notes==
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===Contact details===
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Science Media Centre, "[http://www.sciencemediacentre.org/pages/about/staff.htm Staff profiles]"
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Personal blog, "[http://fionafox.blogspot.com/ Fiona Fox blogspot]"
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===Notes===
 
<references/>
 
<references/>
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[[Category:LM group|Fox, Fiona]][[Category:GM|Fox, Fiona]][[Category:Pro-GM Lobbyists|Fox, Fiona]]
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[[Category:LM network|Fox, Fiona]][[Category:GM|Fox, Fiona]][[Category:Pro-GM Lobbyists|Fox, Fiona]]

Latest revision as of 14:11, 17 August 2013

LM network resources
Fiona Fox listed as 'Fiona Foster' in a picture from the journal she edited at the time: Irish Freedom the bulletin of the Irish Freedom Movement, Issue 18 Summer 1992.

Some sections of this page have been suspended pending further research.

Fiona Fox is the director of the Science Media Centre (SMC) and is associated with the libertarian anti-environmental LM network and its precursor, the Revolutionary Communist Party.

As a student, she joined and was subsequently a leading member of the Revolutionary Communist Party and of its front group the Irish Freedom Movement. She was for a period (circa 1992) the editor of its bulletin titled Irish Freedom. Fiona Fox wrote, using her party name, Fiona Foster, for Living Marxism, appeared in Spiked,[1] chaired sessions at the Battle of Ideas, [2] has adjudicated for Debating Matters, [3] is an adviser to the Progress Educational Trust[4] and wrote, again as Fiona Foster, for Novo Argumente. Fiona is a younger sister of leading LM associate Claire Fox and is married to LM associate Kevin Rooney, with whom she has had a son, Declan. [5]

Despite having no previous background in science or science communication, Fox has been afforded, since her appointment to the Science Media Centre in December 2001, the status of expert. She has, for example, been included in a working party on peer review set up by Sense About Science, and in a steering group on improving communication over science policy and risk set up by the Office of Science and Technology. In 2003 Fox delivered a lecture at Green College, Oxford, on the challenge of adapting science to the mass media.


Early career

Fox was born in 1964, attended St. Richard Gwyn Catholic High School, Flint in North Wales and studied journalism at the Polytechnic of Central London. She started her career as an Assistant PR officer for Thames Polytechnic, followed by six years at the Equal Opportunities Commission, reaching the position of senior press officer. She then spent two years running the media operation at the National Council for One Parent Families, followed by Head of Media at CAFOD, the Catholic aid agency.

Science Media Centre

Within months of Fox becoming its founding director in 2001, the SMC was embroiled in controversy over its activities. It was accused of operating as "a sort of Mandelsonian rapid rebuttal unit" [6] and of employing "some of the clumsiest spin techniques of New Labour"[7]. There have also been controversies about both the SMC's funding and Fox's background.

According to the Science Media Centre, Fox previously ran "the media operation at the National Council for One Parent Families" and was "Head of Media at CAFOD, the Catholic aid agency". In addition, the SMC profile says, Fox "has written extensively for newspapers and publications, authored several policy papers and contributed to books on humanitarian aid".[8] What they do not say is that throughout much of that time Fox led a double life. It's one which seriously undermines the SMC's claims to be open, rational, balanced and independent, not to mention its being in the business of ensuring the 'that the public gets access to all sides of the debate about controversial issues.' It's a double life that connects the SMC's director to the inner circles of a political network that compares environmentalists to Nazis and eulogises GM crops and cloning. More disturbingly, it is a network whose members have a long history of infiltrating media organisations and science-related lobby groups in order to promote their own agenda. It is also a network that has targeted certain media organisations and sought to discredit them or their journalists.

Fiona Fox's presence in the SMC needs to be seen in the context of other LM contributors holding senior positions, in a series of organisations which lobby on issues related to biotechnology, eg Sense About Science (managing director: Tracey Brown; director: Ellen Raphael), Genetic Interest Group (former policy director: John Gillott), Progress Educational Trust (former director: Juliet Tizzard, Communications Officer Sandy Starr), and the Scientific Alliance (advisor: Bill Durodie). The network's own entities, particularly the Institute of Ideas, relies heavily on funding from Pfizer, the Wellcome Trust and the Research Councils, funding provided on the basis that these entities will promote discussion of controversial emerging technologies.

This background is a cause for concern in relation to Fox's role as director of the SMC. Fox's Green College Lecture was titled, 'The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth: so where does that leave journalism?' But neither Fox nor the Science Media Centre have been willing to disclose any of the truth about her long years of involvement with a network of extremists who engage in infiltration of media organisations and science-related lobby groups in order to promote their own agenda. It is also a network which eulogises GM crops and cloning and is extremely hostile towards their critics.

Fox's own journalism might also suggest that she is none too fussy about either truth or openness when it comes to pushing her agenda. It is perhaps revealing that someone whose own journalism has been called 'shoddy' and 'an affront to the truth', and has proved enormously controversial, has been selected as the director of an organisation which claims the role of making sure that controversial scientific issues like GM crops are reported accurately in the media.

Hoax call

In October 2010 Fiona Fox was in the news as a result of the disgraced former Labour politician Jim Devine being ordered to pay his former office manager 35,000 pounds in damages after she won an employment tribunal claim against him. Devine was already facing a criminal trial over allegations he fiddled his expenses as an MP.[9]

A key part of Devine's former office manager's case centered around a hoax call. The telephone call was made to the office manager by a friend of Devine posing as a journalist looking into MPs' expenses. This friend, in reality, was Fiona Fox.

Eventually the office manager realised the call had been a hoax. But this was only after she came across an e-mail to Devine marked urgent from Fiona Fox, Director of the Science Media Centre. The e-mail was mostly about the Human Fertility and Embryology Bill but at the end was a PS referring to the hoax call Fox had made to Devine's office manager.[10]

Fox and Devine seem to have struck up their close friendship while working together to win public support for animal-human hybrid embryos during the passage of the Embryology Bill. The fact that Devine was a Catholic was particularly useful, and he even brokered a special meeting between the head of the Catholic Church in Scotland and scientific supporters of hybrid embryos.[11]

The Science Media Centre was involved in co-ordinating the media work in support of the Embryology Bill, and Fox and her collaborators were particularly anxious not to see the Bill bogged down by public opposition, as happened with GM.[12]

Fox's involvement in the Devine hoax has not gone unnoticed in science communication circles. Ian Sample, the science correspondent of The Guardian, has written:

Though appalling from the off, it was not the top line [of the employment tribunal story] that shocked many of my colleagues most. What came as a surprise was the revelation far down the story that the fake call in question was made by Fiona Fox, head of the Science Media Centre in London, a prominent venue for press conferences on all matters scientific and medical. Otherwise articulate people who read the story struggled to say more than three letters: WTF?[13]

Publications, Resources, contact, Notes

Publications

2010-2011

2005-2009

2000-2004

  • Fiona Fox, 'Is 'Nano' the Next GM?', Chemistry World: Comment, February 2002.
  • Fiona Fox 'Human Rights and the Rule of Law: Achieving Universal Justice?', in David Chandler (Ed.) Rethinking Human Rights: Critical Approaches to International Politics Houndmills: Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan (26 Nov 2002) ISBN-10: 0333977165 ISBN-13: 978-0333977163

1995-1999

1990-1994

1985-1989

  • Fiona Foster, 'Guess who's left holding baby?', Living Marxism, No. 9 - July 1989, p. 28.
  • Fiona Foster, 'Out of the frying pan', Living Marxism, No. 10 - August 1989, p. 32.

Affiliations

Resources

Contact details

Science Media Centre, "Staff profiles" Personal blog, "Fiona Fox blogspot"

Notes

  1. ↑ E=mc2 Spiked website, acc 13 Mar 2011
  2. ↑ [1] Battle of Ideas website, acc 13 Mar 2011
  3. ↑ {http://www.debatingmatters.com/people/fiona_fox/ People] Debating Matters website, acc 13 Mar 2011
  4. ↑ Fiona Fox] Progress Educational Trust website
  5. ↑ "Claire and Fiona Fox, sisters", The Sunday Times, May 28 2006, accessed July 4 2010
  6. ↑ Ronan Bennett, "The conspiracy to undermine the truth about our GM drama", The Guardian, 2 June 2002, accessed March 22 2009
  7. ↑ Alan Rusbridger, "Fields of ire", The Guardian, 7 June 2002 accessed March 22 2009
  8. ↑ "Staff", Science Media Centre website, version placed in web archive 17 January 2004, accessed March 2009
  9. ↑ Cara Sulieman, Expenses-scandal MP told to pay aide £35,000 over sex slur and bullying, The Scotsman, 15 Oct 2010, acc 18 Oct 2010
  10. ↑ Cara Sulieman, Ex Labour MP Jim Devine’s ‘hoax’ call left office manager sick with stress – tribunal to rule over dismissal claim, Deadline Press Agency, 14 Oct 2010, acc 18 Oct 2010
  11. ↑ BRIAN DONNELLY, Cardinal agrees to meet embryo scientists, The Herald Scotland, 29 Mar 2008, acc 18 Oct 2010
  12. ↑ Fiona Fox, Scientists, hybrid embryos and the media, BioNews, 28 Apr 2008, acc 18 Octo 2010
  13. ↑ Ian Sample, Employment tribunal hears of bizarre hoax phone call, Guardian, 15 Oct 2010, acc 18 Oct 2010
  14. ↑ DIUS Science and the Media Expert Group, 2010, retrieved from the Internet Archive of 21 January 2010 on 17 August 2013
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